Hey, was wondering if any of you into math could help me out.
High school math club, assume very smart, nerdy students. If there's a contest to see who can prove something the quickest, what would be a good prize for the teacher to offer?
Any ideas?
Also: what would be a good proof for such a club?
Friday, October 3, 2008
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Decisions, decisions...
Note: This post is cross-posted on both my Writer's Blog and my Travel Blog.
So, I just recently started thinking about trying my hand at blogging for real this time-- partly inspired by Kat, partly by Spider, and partly just because the idea had already been percolating in my head for a little while. I created a Writer's Blog about nine months ago, then a Travel Blog about five months ago, but didn't do much with either of them. With the Travel Blog, it's understandable; I haven't gotten to travel much recently (though I'm still considering transferring my travel posts from Livejournal and backdating them. Unfortunately a lot of the stuff from the Thai/Burmese border can't be publicly posted because it could incriminate people, but at least there'd be SOMETHING travel-y). With the Writer's Blog, I just don't know... maybe if other people were reading it I'd find it useful, but I have to write first, then people will read... shocking, I know.
So mostly what I'm wondering about (and it's not like people will be reading this and answering, because neither of these blogs has been used enough to have readers) is this: How should I work this blogging thing?
I could:
A) Merge the Writer's and Travel Blogs together, and just make it one general blog, meant to relate to all parts of my life and my observations of the world around me.
B) Keep one of the two blogs as it is, and then take the other and make it more of a “general blog.”
C) Create a third blog to have my general rants and observations about the world and the universe, separate from my other two blogs, and try to keep up with all three (or whichever seem the most relevant to my life and interesting to me at the time).
I'm really not sure which one of these to do... I suppose I shall have to continue thinking.
So, I just recently started thinking about trying my hand at blogging for real this time-- partly inspired by Kat, partly by Spider, and partly just because the idea had already been percolating in my head for a little while. I created a Writer's Blog about nine months ago, then a Travel Blog about five months ago, but didn't do much with either of them. With the Travel Blog, it's understandable; I haven't gotten to travel much recently (though I'm still considering transferring my travel posts from Livejournal and backdating them. Unfortunately a lot of the stuff from the Thai/Burmese border can't be publicly posted because it could incriminate people, but at least there'd be SOMETHING travel-y). With the Writer's Blog, I just don't know... maybe if other people were reading it I'd find it useful, but I have to write first, then people will read... shocking, I know.
So mostly what I'm wondering about (and it's not like people will be reading this and answering, because neither of these blogs has been used enough to have readers) is this: How should I work this blogging thing?
I could:
A) Merge the Writer's and Travel Blogs together, and just make it one general blog, meant to relate to all parts of my life and my observations of the world around me.
B) Keep one of the two blogs as it is, and then take the other and make it more of a “general blog.”
C) Create a third blog to have my general rants and observations about the world and the universe, separate from my other two blogs, and try to keep up with all three (or whichever seem the most relevant to my life and interesting to me at the time).
I'm really not sure which one of these to do... I suppose I shall have to continue thinking.
So... I really don't seem to have used my writing blog at all, have I? I'm trying to decide whether to shelve it, or to give it another go.
Right now I'm in the middle of coming up with some really significant plot points for Vae Victor, which is exciting. For about two years now I've known that there were these couple of years that Anann is at Caltech and Michael is off in DC, and that Anann was working for the Resistance and Michael for the government... but I didn't have a clear idea of *what* each of them was doing. Now I've just worked that out, and it comes together really well. It's a constant job for Anann that also allows for a few scenes of high adrenaline, having to actually go out and see some action; it's a cool but decidedly creepy job that Michael is doing; and in both cases, it incorporates their already existing abilities and skills.
The downside is this: What Michael is doing is evil. Just plain evil. And, while Michael was never, EVER meant to be sweetness and light, and he was never meant to be a fully sympathetic character... you were still supposed to be able to care about him, understand him to an extent. More to the point, you were supposed to understand why Anann still cares about him, much as she might not want to.
But this might make him just plain too evil, so that if Anann gives into him and gets involved with him again, even when she's a prisoner in his apartment (the only way he could save her from execution)... then I think the reader will just go, "This girl is an idiot" and stop caring.
I devoted a lot of page time to developing Anann and Michael's relationship... from the uneasy truce, to the slowly developing friendship, to their becoming something totally undefined and forming a really deep understanding of the other, to their finally getting together and having a slowly forming romance. It's one of the few relationships I've written that I really like-- it really feels well-developed, well done, realistic. But it's all POINTLESS if, halfway through the book, Michael ceases to be a character you can care about, and the only way to make the reader respect Anann is to have her completely close him out, forever.
So I'm not sure what to do there.
Right now I'm in the middle of coming up with some really significant plot points for Vae Victor, which is exciting. For about two years now I've known that there were these couple of years that Anann is at Caltech and Michael is off in DC, and that Anann was working for the Resistance and Michael for the government... but I didn't have a clear idea of *what* each of them was doing. Now I've just worked that out, and it comes together really well. It's a constant job for Anann that also allows for a few scenes of high adrenaline, having to actually go out and see some action; it's a cool but decidedly creepy job that Michael is doing; and in both cases, it incorporates their already existing abilities and skills.
The downside is this: What Michael is doing is evil. Just plain evil. And, while Michael was never, EVER meant to be sweetness and light, and he was never meant to be a fully sympathetic character... you were still supposed to be able to care about him, understand him to an extent. More to the point, you were supposed to understand why Anann still cares about him, much as she might not want to.
But this might make him just plain too evil, so that if Anann gives into him and gets involved with him again, even when she's a prisoner in his apartment (the only way he could save her from execution)... then I think the reader will just go, "This girl is an idiot" and stop caring.
I devoted a lot of page time to developing Anann and Michael's relationship... from the uneasy truce, to the slowly developing friendship, to their becoming something totally undefined and forming a really deep understanding of the other, to their finally getting together and having a slowly forming romance. It's one of the few relationships I've written that I really like-- it really feels well-developed, well done, realistic. But it's all POINTLESS if, halfway through the book, Michael ceases to be a character you can care about, and the only way to make the reader respect Anann is to have her completely close him out, forever.
So I'm not sure what to do there.
Sunday, December 16, 2007
My Writer's Blog!
I figured that it was time to start a writer's blog. After all, I've been writing since, well, before I could physically write (I dictated to adults). There hasn't really been a significant period in my life when I haven't been writing at least a little. And right now I'm struggling through one main novel that I've been working on for over three years, of which I've written more than I've ever written with a single set of characters, and which I am passionate about. Now all I have to do is finish it!
I write other things too-- I'm more nominally working on other novels, sometimes I write short stories, occasionally poetry, and often fanfiction. I'll include things relevant to these things as well.
So... welcome to my Writer's Blog!
I write other things too-- I'm more nominally working on other novels, sometimes I write short stories, occasionally poetry, and often fanfiction. I'll include things relevant to these things as well.
So... welcome to my Writer's Blog!
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